ers which alone could have drawn him
forth from the very borders of the grave.

When the morning of that day came, from all the region thereabout the
people began to stream toward the place where the orator was to speak.
So widespread was the desire to hear him that even the college in the
next county--the college of Hampden-Sidney--suspended its work for
that day, and thus enabled all its members, the president himself, the
professors, and the students, to hurry over to Charlotte court-house.
One of those students, John Miller, of South Carolina, according to an
account said to have been given by him in conversation forty years
afterward, having with his companions reached the town,--

"and having learned that the great orator would speak in the
porch of a tavern fronting the large court-green, ... pushed
his way through the gathering crowd, and secured the
pedestal of a pillar, where he stood within eight feet of
him. He was very infirm, and seated in a chair conversing
with some old friends, waiting for the assembling of the
immense multitudes who were pouring in from all the
surrounding country to hear him. At length he arose with
difficulty, and stood somewhat bowed with age and weakness.
His face was almost colorless. His countenance was careworn;
and when he commenced his exordium, his voice was slightly
cracked and tremulous. But in a few moments a wonderful
transformation of the whole man occurred, as he warmed with
his theme. He stood erect; his eye beamed with a light that
was almost supernatural; his features glowed with the hue
and fire of youth; and his voice rang clear and melodious
with the intonations of some grand musical instrument whose
notes filled the area, and fell distinctly and delightfully
upon the ears of the most distant of the thousands gathered
before him."[470]

As regards the substance of the speech then made, it will not be safe
for us to confide very much in the supposed recollections of old men
who heard it when they were young. Upon the whole, probably, the most
trustworthy outline of it now to be had is that of a gentleman who
declares that he wrote down his recollections of the speech not long
after its delivery. According to this account, Patrick Henry--

"told them that the late proceedings of the Virginian
Assembly had filled him with apprehensions and alarm; that